Don’t Use Your Sleave! Hardware Made From Washable Fabric Ben Alley
"Mom, you shrunk my keyboard in the wash!" A new technology is in the works to expand the range of possibilities for electronics design--to include textiles.
A pair of British inventors has developed an electricity-conducting fabric that could lead to washable, wearable phones, keyboards and other devices. ... Like traditional fabric, Elektex can be washed and ironed, and is extremely durable and cheap to make. But because it conducts electricity, the fabric lends itself to a whole class of new applications.
So far a cloth keyboard and a spongy cell phone that can go through the wash have been made. According to one of the inventors, a tie that functioned as a cell phone was also created, "[but] it was a bit too geeky, people didn't take it seriously."
